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AMERICAN INDIANS. 




J. B. 



PHILADELPHIA: 



LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. 
18 88. 



Copyright, 1888, by J. B. Lippincott Company. 

i5* 



*■ 




AMERICAN INDIANS. 



American Indians. The aborigines of America, taken 
together, form one of the most definitely marked-off and 
strongly characterised of the different races of men. 
Their physical and mental characters are much the same 
from the Arctic Ocean to Fuegia. The Eskimo of the 
far North alone differs widely in appearance and habits 
from the so-called ' Red Indian f but they both agree 
in having a polysynthetic language. Indeed the real 
Indian tribes and the Eskimos alike possess languages 
which, while they may differ greatly in sound, and in 
vocabulary, are almost identical in structure. True 
polysynthesis consists in the more or less complete amal- 
gamation of the prominent elements of the different 
words of a sentence, or clause, into one long complex 
word. Something approaching this process is observable 
in the language of the Basques in Europe; but with this 
exception, it is quite unknown in the languages of the 
eastern hemisphere. The American languages (except- 
ing the Aleut of the North-west, which appears to be 
North Asiatic) all are marked by this strong family 
likeness or common feature. Yet some languages are 
more strongly polysynthetic than others, and one or two 
(like the Ottomi of Mexico) appear to have a minimum 
of polysynthetism. The unity of the American lan- 
guage-type is exactly matched by the essential unity and 
sameness of the mental, moral, and physical types of the 



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AMERICAN INDIANS. 



red men. True, some tribes are warlike, and others 
cowardly ; some live by the chase, others by agriculture 
or horticulture ; some are fish-eaters, others huntsmen ; 
but they are essentially one and the same people through- 
out, the Eskimos alone excepted. 

Their physical characters are a certain tallness and 
robustness, with an erect posture of the body ; a skull 
narrowing from the eyebrows upward ; prominence of 
the cheek-bones ; the eyes black, deep set, and having, it 
is thought, a slight tendency, in many cases, to strabis- 
mus; the hair coarse, very black, and perfectly straight ; 
the nose prominent or even aquiline; the complexion 
usually of a reddish, coppery, or cinnamon colour, but 
with considerable variations in this respect. They have 
seldom much beard. In physical qualities, the Indians 
thus make a somewhat close approximation to the Mon- 
golian type. There is also a certain remarkable feeble- 
ness of constitution, combined, it may be, with vigour, 
suppleness, and strength of body. At least, the abo- 
riginal races do not resist well the epidemics introduced 
by the whites ; and many tribes have been exterminated 
by the effects of the ' firewater' and the vicious habits 
brought in by more civilised men. The red man is 
usually proud and reserved ; serious, if not gloomy, in 
his views of life; comparatively indifferent to wit or 
pleasantry; vain of personal endowments; brave and 
fond of war, yet extremely cautious and taking no need- 
less risks; fond of gambling and drinking; seemingly 
indifferent to pain ; kind and hospitable to strangers, yet 
revengeful and cruel, almost beyond belief, to those who 
have given offence. The men are usually expert in war 
and the chase, but inactive in other pursuits. In many 



AMERICAN INDIANS. 



5 



tribes, both sexes take part in athletic games. They 
often excel in horsemanship, and, as a rule, sight and 
hearing are wonderfully acute. 

There is a very prevalent tendency among recent 
writers to reject the old traditions regarding 1 the noble 
red man of the forest/ and the saying is common in 
America (quoted, it is said, from a distinguished general 
in the United States service) that ' the only good Indian 
is a dead Indian/ We ought to remember, however, 
that the bad Indian of to-day is in part the creation of 
the white man, whose vices have degraded him, and 
whose greed has impoverished him. Even where, from 
a desire to be just, he has been liberally subsidised, res- 
ervation-life, with its consequent idleness and aimless- 
ness, has made the Indian a discontented pauper. The 
old-time Indian had courage, dignity, self-respect, and 
hospitality, and not one of these qualities has entirely 
disappeared from the Indian of the present day. The 
Araucanians, according to the testimony of their ene- 
mies, were ' generous, courageous, humane towards the 
vanquished, courteous, hospitable, benevolent and grate- 
ful. Seeing the evils of which gold is the cause, they 
early closed their mines, avowing the most profound 
contempt for that metal/ Eloquence and fondness for 
oratory, formerly so conspicuous among some of the 
North American tribes, were equally characteristic of 
the Araucanian in the far South. 

The property-system of the Indians is essentially com- 
munistic. Lands are everywhere, in theory at least, 
held in common. Still there are rich and poor men 
among them. Some individuals will be prudent, and 
others not. Some will build good cabins, and save furs, 



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AMERICAN INDIANS. 



weapons, corn ; while others depend in part upon luck 
or the charity of their fellows. Notoriously unworthy 
Indians are sometimes denied the benefit of the savings 
of their tribe or band. For money the Indians for- 
merly used strings of wampum made of clam-shells. 
Furs were also current in trade. 

The religion of the Indians is, in the main, not un- 
like the Shamanism of North Asia; and the juggleries, 
incantations, and trances of the shaman of Siberia are 
pretty closely matched by the doings of the North 
American medicine-man. Most of the tribes acknowl- 
edge one Supreme Being, but numerous inferior deities 
or spirits, good and bad, are usually recognized. Most 
of the Indians believe in a future life ; but their religion 
is usually without highly spiritual ideas. Circumcision, 
or something resembling it, once prevailed widely in 
South America. The sacrifice of human beings was 
very common in ancient Mexico, when the old religion 
had many repulsive features. Cannibalism, a practice 
which once obtained rather extensively, seems to have 
had usually a religious significance. Some races, like 
the Zuiiis, have an elaborate and highly mystical ritual, 
to the exhibitions of which none but the initiated are 
admissible. The ritual of the Roman Catholic Church 
has strong attractions for the Indian; and the less 
elaborate service of the Episcopalians has in several in- 
stances helped to win over to Christianity tribes which 
had long rejected the teachings of missionaries of other 
denominations. 

For intellectual pursuits the capacity of the American 
Indian is fair, but not high, so far as we can judge from 
the results thus far attained in the training schools 



AMERICAN INDIANS. 



7 



established by the United States government. But it 
must be remembered that these schools have not yet 
passed the experimental stage. Dr. D. G. Brinton of 
Philadelphia has collected and published several vol- 
umes of aboriginal literature, chiefly the production of 
native Indians, and printed in their own tongues. 
Among noted American Indians we may enumerate 
Tecumseh and Pontiac, famous warriors ; Logan, cele- 
brated for his valour and eloquence; Brant and Red 
Jacket, noted leaders of the Iroquois; Osceola, the 
heroic half-breed chief of the Seminoles ; Sequoyah (the 
half-breed son of a German father), the inventor of the 
Cherokee syllabary (his name is perpetuated in that of 
Sequoia, a genus of gigantic Californian trees) ; Black 
Hawk, the great warrior of the Sacs and Foxes; and 
Joseph, a noble-minded and heroic leader of the Nez 
Perces. Among the Mexican Indians of distinction 
have been Benito Juarez (1806-72), once president and 
twice 1 anti-president' of the republic ; and Tomas Mejia 
(died 1867), a valorous general. Rafael Carrera (1814- 
65), president of Guatemala, was of mixed Indian and 
negro descent; Jesse Bushyhead (died 1844) was an 
able Cherokee jurist; Samson Occum (1723-92), an 
Indian preacher of New England, was the author of 
some hymns in English, one of which, i Awaked by 
Sinai's awful Sound/ is still used in public worship. 
Cornplanter (died 1836), an Iroquois chief, is said to 
have been the earliest temperance lecturer in America. 
George Cop way (born 1820) was well known as a jour- 
nalist and author. In South America, CopafLo (1511- 
48) was a brave and able warrior of Chili, as also was 



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AMERICAN INDIANS. 



the giant Collipulle (died 1576). The Araucanian sol- 
dier Calafquin (died 1602) is also a great name. 

By far the greater part of the native tribes have never 
progressed beyond the savage state. Yet in Peru, Co- 
lombia, Central America, Yucatan, and Mexico, there 
were tribes five hundred years ago who had attained a 
relatively high degree of native civilisation. In New 
Mexico and Arizona, the rather numerous ' pueblos' or 
native Indian towns are the relics of what may have 
been a northern extension of the Mexican civilisation. 
The relics of the prehistoric ( Mound-builders' found 
throughout a large part of Central North America, and 
the great numbers of the nameless ruined towns of the 
' Cliff-dwellers' and other extinct peoples of the South- 
western United States, would seem to show, however, 
that in remote ages the native civilisation had a far 
wider extent than in recent times. The Mexicans and 
Peruvians excelled in architecture. Neither of them 
had iron ; both had native or other copper and gold, 
and the Peruvians seem to have had cutting tools 
of bronze. The Mexicans had no domestic animals 
but the dog ; the Peruvians had also the llama and 
alpaca. 

Both grew cotton as well as maize ; both could spin 
and weave. Yet nowhere have the Indians, except on 
compulsion, adopted very readily the civilisation of 
Europe. There has been, however, a considerable pro- 
gress in this regard among the tribes now placed in the 
' Indian Territory' of the United States, where the 
natives have largely adopted Protestant Christianity 
and the habits of civilised life. Elsewhere, the Roman 
Catholics have, in many instances, succeeded better with 



AMERICAN INDIANS. 



9 



the Indians than have the Protestant missionaries. In 
the United States, the Indians have waged many bitter 
wars against the whites, who have little by little dis- 
possessed them of their lands. Very little trouble of 
this kind has ever been experienced in Canada, and 
still less, in recent years, in Spanish America, where the 
Indian population would appear to be gaining on the 
white. The greater spirit and vindictiveness of the 
northern Indians has involved them in ruin; but the 
Mexican Indians, contented to belong to a subject race, 
have multiplied more rapidly than the conquering peo- 
ple. In Mexico, the Indians consider themselves a gente 
sin razon, 4 people without reason/ while the Spanish 
Americans constitute a superior gente de razon, or ' peo- 
ple of reason.' Yet in that country the mingling of 
the two races is very common; and among the best 
soldiers and statesmen of the republic, some have been 
Indians of pure blood. In Peru, many of the priests 
and monks are of Indian race. In Brazil, where the 
Portuguese language prevails in towns, the speech of 
the Tupi-Guarani tribes has been adopted as a lingoa 
geral (a kind of lingua franca) throughout the interior. 
In Paraguay, the same language has nearly displaced 
the Spanish, even among the whites. Each one of the 
countless tribes of America has its own language. These 
tribes are grouped together by ethnologists, chiefly with 
reference to the common elements of their languages. 
In many cases, the various tribes of a group recognise a 
certain kind of kinship among themselves, but in not a 
few instances it is very hard to prove any near relation- 
ship either by language or by blood; while, in a few 



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AMERICAN INDIANS. 



cases, tribes speaking the same language differ widely 
in character, habits, and appearance. 

Rejecting the Aleuts and Eskimo from the category 
of 'Indian' peoples, the principal stocks or recognised 
families are as follows : (1) The Tinneh or Athabascans, 
including many tribes of Alaska and Northern Canada 
as well as the Apaches, Navajoes, and others in the 
United States. (2) The Columbian tribes, including the 
Thlinket of Alaska and many tribes of Western Canada 
and the NW. of the United States. (3) The Algonquins, 
a great and pretty clearly marked race, which once cov- 
ered a large part of the Atlantic slope from Labrador to 
Virginia, and reached westward to the Rocky Moun- 
tains. Here belong the Abenaki, the Delawares, the 
Crees, the Chippeways, and many now historic tribes. 
Some authors assign the Cheyennes, the Arapahoes, and 
even the Blackfeet to this stock. (4) The Iroquois, a 
once powerful and warlike race, formerly dwelling for 
the most part in the St. Lawrence Valley. This was 
one of the most clearly defined families of North Amer- 
ica. (5) The important Dakota stock, mainly found 
near the head- waters of the Mississippi. (6) The Ap- 
palachians, including the Chahta-Muskoki (or Choctaws 
and Creeks), the Chickasaws, Seminoles, Cherokees, and 
others. This family is not a clearly defined group. In 
point of intelligence and adaptiveness to civilisation, 
these tribes take a high rank. (7) The Californian 
tribes; these are very numerous, but lacking in intelli- 
gence and spirit. (8) The Shoshones, with whom are 
classed the Utes, the warlike Comanches and Kiowas, 
the half-civilised Moquis, and many of the degraded 
Diggers. They live mostly among or near the Rocky 



AMERICAN INDIANS. 



11 



Mountains. (9) The Pawnees, with the Arickarees, 
Wichitas, Caddoes, and others. All were ' plainsmen/ 
and many of them have excelled as horsemen and war- 
riors. (10) The Pueblo Indians and others of New 
Mexico and Arizona; a composite division. (11) The 
Mexican tribes, of which the number is very great, and 
the family unity very questionable. Here are placed 
the celebrated Aztecs, the half-mythical Toltecs, the in- 
teresting and semi-civilised Nicaraguans, and many 
others. In the languages of this group polysynthesis 
is said to reach its highest development ; yet in the 
Otomi speech, which is classed here, an almost mono- 
syllabic simplicity is observable, probably due to a decay 
of the polysynthetic habit. (12) The Maya stock of 
Mexico and Central America, some languages of which 
had a kind of rude alphabetic writing. The Lenca and 
Isthmian groups are regarded as offshoots of this stock. 

(13) The Caribs and Orinoco Indians, of many tribes. 
Here some would place the Chibchas of Colombia, who 
anciently had a relatively high degree of civilisation. 

(14) The Amazonian Indians, grouped in a great num- 
ber of bands [or tribes, and having a very low intellect- 
ual position. Most of these tribes would appear to 
have few linguistic or other characters in common. 
Some regard them as chiefly offshoots of the (15) Tupi- 
Guarani race, which once covered a large part of Brazil 
and Paraguay. (16) The Botocudo race, once very 
powerful in Brazil, now greatly reduced. (17) The 
Quichua-Aymara group, to which belonged the old 
Peruvian civilisation (the highest native development). 
(18) The Motobi of the Gran Chaco, with many sub- 
divisions. (19) The Araucanian-Patagonian stock, and 



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AMERICAN INDIANS. 



(20) the Fuegians, comprising six or more degraded 
tribes, which some would assign to group 19, although 
the Araucanians are physically and morally one of the 
finest, as the Fuegians are among the lowest of savage 
races. 

Respecting the future of the American race, it is not 
easy to make a forecast. It is probably true that in 
North America, at least, the forcible expatriation and 
deportation of tribes is a thing of the past. The or- 
dinary operations of missionary work have not thus far, 
except in a few instances, borne the best fruit among 
the Indians. The best results have followed where 
industrial training has been joined to missionary in- 
struction. Even the degraded Fuegians have begun to 
respond hopefully to this kind of training. The plan 
adopted years ago, in the United States, of paying an- 
nuities to the deported tribes, no doubt took its rise in 
the desire to deal equitably with them j but the result 
has been, in many cases, the swift pauperisation and 
consequent moral degradation of the beneficiary tribes. 
In Canada the case is different. The French character 
and methods of dealing always suited the ideas of the 
aborigines, and the two races amalgamated to a surpris- 
ing extent under French rule. In later years, the 
French-speaking section of the Canadians seems to 
have exercised a tacit protectorate over the Indians; at 
any rate, during the Indian disturbances of the North- 
west in 1885, the French element was supposed to be 
largely in sympathy with the natives. The British and 
colonial authorities of Canada, however, from the very 
first have always endeavoured to deal fairly and gener- 
ously by the Indians, and have made the local French 



AMERICAN INDIANS. 



13 



tradition fully their own. Canada never had a real 
Indian war. Under the Hudson Bay Company's rule 
in the North-west, no Indian ever had cause to com- 
plain of injustice, and, as a consequence, the Indians 
committed few crimes. Bars and bolts were not needed 
on any doors. A distinguished English missionary of 
the Keewatin district has pronounced the natives there 
the most honest and excellent people in the world, ex- 
cept at those times when whisky has been smuggled 
into their country. 

But it must be remembered that the Indian popula- 
tion of Canada was never nearly so dense as farther 
south, nor so hard pressed by the influx of white set- 
tlers as it has been in the United States from the first. 
Nothing but the absolute prohibition of immigration 
could have prevented Indian wars in the United States. 
The influx of settlers has been incessant; and as a con- 
sequence the Indian wars of the country have been 
almost continually waged, until at last the large major- 
ity of the aborigines of the country have been either 
extirpated, or conquered and deported, while others 
have been pauperized and enfeebled by large subsidies. 
From the outset many public men in the United States 
have interested themselves in the red man and his for- 
tunes; but legislation has until of late been of little 
avail ; and after all allowances, there is much to regret, 
and to rouse the feeling of shame, in the history of the 
relations of the white and red races in North America. 

The number of Indians and persons of partial Indian 
descent in North America is placed at 6,000,000 ; but 
this includes a very large number of Spanish-speaking 
half-breeds and Mestizoes of Mexico and the Isthmian 



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AMERICAN INDIANS. 



republics. The Indians of Canada number about 100,- 
000 ; and those of the United States, including Alaska, 
about 315,000. There is reason to believe that the 
Indians of the United States are slowly increasing in 
number. If this be so, the increase must be due to the 
cessation of inter-tribal conflicts, and the enforced adop- 
tion of regular habits of living, in place of the rude 
nomadism of former times. In the United States, non- 
tribal Indians are such as have received lands in severalty, 
and voluntarily pay taxes. They are few in number. 
The civilised Indians of New Mexico and Arizona are 
by treaty United States citizens ; but they have never 
desired or received the rights and responsibilities of 
citizenship. About one-fourth of the United States 
Indians live in the Indian Territory (q.v.), and the rest 
mainly on local reservations. There is unquestionably 
of late a decided improvement going on among many 
of the Indian tribes. 

The South American Indians are estimated by some 
authorities to number not more than 1,700,000. A 
more reasonable estimate places the full-blooded Indians 
of South America at 3,000,000, and the Mestizoes, or 
people of half-Indian blood, at half as many more. 
There is, however, very little real knowledge as to the 
density of the Indian population of the forest-regions, 
some of which are almost unknown to the whites. But, 
as a rule, the population is very sparse. In Ecuador 
and Peru many of the Indians are in a state of semi- 
slavery. 

Concerning the relationship of the American race to 
the Old World peoples, much remains to be learned. 
The hair, complexion, and features of the Indians are 



AMERICAN INDIANS. 



15 



not unlike those of the East Asiatics. In California the 
natives recognise the Chinese as ' bad Indians but the 
industry, patience, foresight, and thrift of the Chinese 
are as un-Indian as anything can be, and are no doubt 
the cause of a great antipathy between the races. Much 
more respect is due to the opinion which would ascribe a 
Chinese origin to the civilisation of Peru. The Chinese 
literature contains various accounts of voyages, which, it 
would appear, must have extended to the American shores. 
The Welsh tradition of Madoc (12th century) has led some 
writers to ascribe a Welsh origin to the Mandans, or even 
to the Modocs. Some have found Basque names in New- 
foundland (a thing not in itself unlikely), and more than 
one Irish legend speaks of visits made, and even colonies 
founded, across the sea. Laborious search has been 
made for supposed linguistic elements common to the 
Brazilian and West African languages (by S. S. Halde- 
man and others), but with results mainly negative. 
There is at present little doubt that man lived in Amer- 
ica as long ago as the Glacial Period. If we assume 
that men first came to America from the Old World by 
way of lands or island-chains not now existing, we shall 
do no violence to the possibilities of the case. Whatever 
accessions may have come in later times, they were 
probably absorbed and lost in the aboriginal population. 
If Peruvian or Mexican civilisation was introduced, and 
not indigenous, it must probably date from a time when 
iron was not known to the civilising people. In Spanish 
America generally, the aborigines are for the most part 
apparently holding their own against white encroachment, 
except in countries where immigration is active. 



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AMERICAN INDIANS. 



See D. G. Brinton, The Maya Chronicles (1882) ; The Iroquois 
Book of Rites (1883) ; The Gueguence (1883) ; Migration Legend of 
the Creeks (1884) ; The Lenape and their Legends (1885) ; The 
Annals of the Cakchiquels (1885) ; the voluminous works of H. E. 
Schoolcraft, which for extent and laborious faithfulness are of 
great value, although the writer's opinions are to be received with 
caution ; H. H. Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific States 
(5 vols. 1875) ; F. S. Drake, The Indian Tribes of the United States 
(2 vols. 1884); the historical works of Francis Parkman ; the 
linguistic writings of Horatio Hale, A. S. Gatschet, and George 
Gibbs ; J. W. Powell, Introduction to the Study of the Indian 
Languages (1880) ; H. H. Jackson, A Century of Dishonour. 



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